San Antonio Education Partnership (SAEP) creates college opportunities, access, and success for those in our community pursuing higher education. Since SAEP’s founding 30 years ago, their expert college advisors have walked hand-in-hand with a quarter of a million students. They have guided, mentored, and cheered students on to earn thousands of degrees. SAEP has also provided 30,000 students with $30 million in scholarships to make their educational dreams come true. In 2019, they grew from 28 school sites to 35; and the plan is to secure additional sites in 2020.
Our initial partnership involved coaching and guidance to their Director of Development and Chief Executive Officer. We are worked one-on-one to grow and expand individual giving. Together, we developed and implemented several new fundraising strategies. The goal was to streamline their fundraising activities, foster a culture of gratitude and meaningful donor relations.
As the organization begins to embrace a culture of philanthropy, it is also important to integrate powerful stories that can communicate the organization’s mission and impact and move people to action. To help with this, the Burnam | Gray team also developed a storytelling process to empower the organization to collect and share stories for a variety of purposes.
In the middle of our partnership, COVID-19 upended our community. San Antonio Education Partnership was planning their major fundraising event for March 2020 but had to postpone. Our work shifted to help support this transition. We worked hand-in-hand with their team to completely reimagine their event to a virtual conversation hosted in September 2020. After a successful event, the team has now brought us back on to support their next event in September 2021.
Even though our work changed and transitioned, that is exactly what SAEP needed. We enjoy being flexible to adapt to what an organization really needs in the moment.